Herefordshire Community Renewables

HCR is an attempt to raise consciousness among people in the county to empower them to take control of their own energy supply and use.

The aim is to create clusters of experts and champions equipped with the relevant skills and knowledge to work alongside new emerging or previously existing groups; such as parish councils. These cadres will be equipped with both technical/ business and group dynamics skills. Their principal role will be in revealing how much power and wealth ordinary people can manifest, and to overcome the inertia of the disempowered.

The objective is to facilitate a wide range of different groups to achieve a range of renewable energy solutions, as well as energy saving measures. The involvement of large numbers of ordinary people as stakeholders and as share owners allows the repatriation of their savings wealth to create a localy sustainable and resilient energy economy. In future it works towards electric car clubs charged from wind turbines displacing fossil fueled cars for rural residents to access urban based services, helping to provide grid balancing as a bonus.

Initially the project works entirely on a voluntary basis, providing talks on energy policy and options to any group within the Marches region. A trickle of new community energy groups is emerging from such talks.

This project is supported by members of the Herefordshire in Transition Alliance